Recent Study Shows High Fiber Diets Can Protect Against Food Allergies

Reports of food allergies in western countries have increased dramatically over the last few decades, with the number of UK cases doubling in the last decade alone. In the USA, it’s now thought that 1 in 13 children suffer from a type of food allergy.

 

Suggestions as to why there has been such an increase in food allergies throughout western countries has often been linked with excessive hygiene, and how this can reduce the body’s immune system. However, a recent study suggests that diets lacking fiber and vitamin A could also be a key reason why the food allergy epidemic in increasing.

 

The study, conducted by Monash University, Australia, has found that a diet high in fiber and enriched with vitamin A could prevent, and potentially reverse food allergies because of the gut microbes these types of foods generate once eaten.

 

They tested this theory with mice that were artificially bred to suffer from peanut allergies. For 2 weeks, a group of mice were fed diets containing naturally occurring fiber and vitamin A, whilst another group were fed diets depleted of both, but with equal calorie count.

 

They found that the mice that consumed a diet rich in fiber and vitamin A showed significantly reduced symptoms of peanut allergies.

 

Results show that the high fiber diet actually altered the bacteria in the mice’s guts, causing their guts to generate more short chain fatty acids, which resulted in the allergy reduction. The team concluded that these fatty acids work with the body's immune system, preventing the cells that regulate food allergies from causing an allergic response. Vitamin A is also key to activating these fatty acids.

 

To add weight to this theory, mice who had not been fed a high fiber diet were instead given water enriched in short chain fatty acids for 3 weeks. This group of mice also saw a reduction in food allergies.

 

The researchers claim that these results show that by consuming a diet rich in natural fiber and vitamin A, the fatty acids produced by the body could help relieve the symptoms suffered by those with food allergy symptoms, possibly preventing them from developing at all.